Monday, October 27, 2008

Lox & Bagels

As a little gift to myself (and M.) this weekend (for my midterm grading psychosis and my unnatural love of Halloween) I will conduct the ultimate experiment: Homemade lox and bagels. As explained in an earlier post, Long Beach is sorely lacking in Jewish cuisine, and the bagels that the local grocers provide are, well, not so hot. There used to be a little place called Bronx Bagels on 2nd Street in Naples that made homemade bagels and lox and even lox spread (which totally rules!), but they went out of business long ago. There is a Noah's Bagels over by the 405 and Bellflower, but who am I kidding? Come morning time, I am not trekking that far for bagels and lox. I pretty much want it to be available within walking distance or forget it. Much more interesting to me is the proposition of making my own and not going further than my kitchen. For one thing, I need a new culinary challenge, and for another, how much better will it be to have fresh bagels and by fresh, I mean, like, just this minute? I have my limits. I will buy the cream cheese pre-made.

I made challah once, and it turned out OK. It was my first time making a real bread. I had made banana bread and apple bread (which was so delicious), but those are more like cakes than a traditional bread made with yeast. After the challah, I made a focaccia and then some pizza dough. It was rewarding to eat homemade bread, but it only really lasts about a day. I imagine bagels are the same. The lox requires several days of planning, as the salmon needs to brine for something like 48 hours. Wish me luck! I'll post pictures.